First, I want to recognize the EFF[1]. They do great work, but they've got a lot more on their plate than just patent reform. I won't reiterate the problem: we all know about the issues with the patent system. And besides, Fred Wilson just wrote up a great post about it[2]: "Enough is Enough."<p>A lot of people, including companies with deep pockets, like Google[3], have publicly called for reform of the patent system. If this is such an important issue for us, why are we not organized around it?<p>This is not a rhetorical question. I genuinely don't understand why there is no major organization dedicated to pushing for patent reform. Such an organization would stand a much greater chance of enacting reforms than everyone acting individually. And such an organization could do things like organize developers in opposition to specific attacks by the trolls.<p>Why does this not exist? If it is simply because nobody has had the time to do it, I'll gladly pitch in and do what I can to get something rolling. If it's a deeper problem, we need to figure out what it is. In any case, enough truly is enough. We need to end this thing.<p>[1] http://www.eff.org/<p>[2] http://www.avc.com/a_vc/2011/06/enough-is-enough.html<p>[3] http://googlepublicpolicy.blogspot.com/2009/03/patent-reform-needed-more-than-ever.html
i think the EFF take the right approach here - software patents do actually make sense, sometimes.<p>patents are good at protecting individuals/small businesses from being crushed by larger companies (assuming they can secure patents for their ideas)<p>however, the system is nonsensical when large organizations have literally millions of patents, for the vaguest of concepts/ideas (google: patent for round transportation aid, or the like), which end up in legal action, the outcome of which is irrelevant because the fees involved for the smaller party are insurmountable.<p>then you have companies like ATI and nVidia, who's graphics drivers probably break an uncountably large number of each others patents - we're then in a position where open source is totally out of the question.<p>certainly, something must be done about patents, but the nullification of all software patents past present and future? that would stifle innovation as much, if not more, than the current system.